Farewell MSN Messenger. The iconic 15-year-old Microsoft instant messaging service for desktops will finally be laid to rest after its closure was announced in China, the last market where it remains active.
Microsoft began migrating Messenger users to Skype in January 2013, before the service was retired in March that year. It was left open in China, mainly because it is operated by local partner TOM and not the US company itself, but the ax will fall on the Chinese service when it closes on October 31, as Technode reports.
Users in China are also being encouraged to switch over to Skype with the offer of free calls. It isn’t clear how many users MSN Messenger has in China, but times have definitely changed and Tencent’s WeChat app — which counts 438 million active users — leads the country’s messaging space in today’s smartphone-centric era.
➤ The Once-beloved Microsoft Messenger to Finally Shut Down in Mainland China [Technode]
Related: In China, more people now access the internet from a mobile device than a PC
Headline image via Manolo Gómez / Flickr
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